Australian C-17 Deal Finalized
Finalizing details on a deal announced earlier this spring, the Boeing Co. was officially awarded a $780 million contract on Monday to assemble four C-17 cargo planes for the Royal Australian Air Force, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports. The pact, announced by the U.S. Defense Department, calls for the C-17s to be delivered starting in November and continuing through February 2008. The C-17 sale, in which Boeing builds the planes for the United States, which then makes a government-to-government transaction with Australia, will deliver the planes at a faster pace than earlier announced.
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Saban Had Offshore Tax Haven, Panel Says
Los Angeles billionaire Haim Saban tried to shield $1.5 billion from taxes by using an offshore tax haven, according to a U.S. Senate panel report Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Saban paid for a transaction that created artificial losses, which he claimed offset his profit from selling his interest in the Fox Family Worldwide Inc. network in 2001, according to the 370-page report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Heat Wave Belted State Farms
California dairy operators on Monday asked for federal disaster assistance after a heat wave that could cost up to $1 billion, the Sacramento Bee reports. Two weeks of triple-digit temperatures — particularly in the central San Joaquin Valley, the state’s leading dairy region — contributed to the deaths of an estimated 16,500 cows. Industry officials said it also disrupted breeding of animals and cut milk production by at least 10 percent.
ABC Pulls Plug On Gibson Project About Holocaust
Walt Disney Co.’s ABC Television Network pulled the plug on a miniseries about the Holocaust that it was developing with Mel Gibson’s production company, after the actor allegedly made anti-Semitic remarks when he was arrested last week on suspicion of drunken driving, the Wall street Journal reports. Mr. Gibson was arrested Thursday night in Malibu, Calif. His conduct prompted criticism from Jewish groups and Hollywood executives, with one prominent agent calling for a boycott of the actor and director.
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Live Nation to Raise Stake in Musictoday
Live Nation Inc., the concert promoter spun off by Clear Channel Communications Inc., agreed to buy a majority stake in Musictoday, an operator of fan sites and online stores for artists such as Christina Aguilera, the Los Angeles Times reports. Musictoday, based in Charlottesville, Va., had sales of more than $100 million last year, Live Nation said Monday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. he purchase extends Live Nation’s expansion into retail sales, adding to its concert promotion and venue management. This month Live Nation acquired a majority stake in Trunk Ltd., which sells T-shirts and other apparel to music fans.
Sylmar Site Brings $56 Per Square Foot
A small parcel in the east San Fernando Valley that once played a role in the region’s renowned olive industry fetched a big price for industrial land, officials said Monday. Developer Tony Torres paid $56 per square foot for the 66,000 square feet at 13151 San Fernando Road in Sylmar, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. That’s $2 under the per-square-foot record price paid for a one-acre site on the south side of Roscoe Boulevard at the 405 Freeway, said George Stavaris, associate vice president of Colliers International’s Encino office who represented Torres in the transaction.
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Private Funds Fuel Clean Energy
Los Angeles-based alternative-energy company Altra Inc. raised more than $120 million from private investors in its latest financing round , a sign that major venture capital firms have not been scared off by growing talk that too much money may be chasing too few sustainable ideas in the search to replace gasoline, the Los Angeles Times reports. The new funding, which Altra could announce as early as today, brings its total to more than $250 million from some of the nation’s top venture capital firms. And it took less than six months to line up the cash.
Critics Think Marina Del Rey Housing Proposal Would Hurt Low-Income Residents
The county Board of Supervisors is expected to move forward today on an affordable housing proposal for Marina del Rey that critics say could hurt low-income residents, the Daily Breeze reports. A draft of the policy seeks to ensure that developers who tear down and replace residential structures in Marina del Rey also build enough affordable housing units for all the low-income residents who lived in the original building.
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